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Obama will attend the groundbreaking in Holland, Michigan, of a factory for Compact Power Inc., a unit of South Korea's LG Chem Ltd. that got a $151 million stimulus grant to make electric-vehicle batteries.

The completed factory will employ more than 300 workers to produce batteries for General Motors Co.'s Chevrolet Volt and Ford Motor Co.'s Focus Electric vehicles.

"None of this would have been possible without the Recovery Act," White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer told reporters on a conference call yesterday. He criticized Republican opposition to the $862 billion stimulus.

"If they had their way we would not be breaking ground," he said. "These industries would not be created here."

Obama and other administration officials have stepped up their defense of the stimulus measure which was passed shortly after the president took office. The president spent a two-day trip to Missouri and Nevada last week talking about government spending on battery-driven trucks and tax credits that encourage clean-energy manufacturing.

Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/